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Download free Maya workflow utility Helios

Originally posted on 17 August 2016. Scroll down for news of the Helios 1.1 update.

3D artist Thibault Houdon has released Helios, a free workflow utility for Maya that lets you execute hundreds of commands by typing the first few letters of their names into a floating window.

Perform any common Maya action by typing a few letters
The add-on lets users access any Maya tool, open windows like the Outliner or UV Editor, create objects, and perform a range of commmon operations.

All of the commands supported are listed in a custom Python dictionary, which can be edited to change the command mapped to a particular set of keywords, or to add new commands.

Helios also comes with a set of Python scripts representing time-saving commands not enabled in Maya by default like rigging option Create Joint From Nulls, shown in the demo video above.

Updated 21 September 2016: Thibault Houdon has released version 1.1 of Helios.

The update reworks the software’s user interface – “redesigned from scratch” – and search algorithm. Among other changes, commonly used commands should now rise naturally to the top of search results.

Availability
Helios is available for download from Gumroad via the link below. It’s compatible with Maya 2015 and above on Windows and Linux, though Houdon hasn’t tested it on Mac OS X.

The add-on is free, but you can enter a voluntary donation on the Gumroad page.